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Get ready to say hello to a top Dolly Parton tribute act, one day only on the Circa ’21 stage.

Karen Hester is billed as the nation’s No. 1 tribute to the legendary country singer-songwriter and philanthropist. Parton is a 77-year-old Tennessee native and Hester is a 53-year-old native of Danville, Va. (on the North Carolina border), who makes her Circa debut on Thursday, July 20, for two shows — a matinee and evening performance.

The doors for the matinee open at 11:45 a.m. with lunch from 12-12:45 p.m. and show at 1:15. The doors for the evening show open at 5:45 with dinner from 6-7 and show at 7:15. The cost for the matinee is $59.35 per person and $65.65 for the evening show. 

Tickets may be reserved by calling 309-786-7733, ext. 2 or at the theater’s ticket office at 1828 3rd Ave., Rock Island.

Hester has been performing as Parton for 12 years, and has been the opening act for recording artists Trace Adkins and Ricky Van Shelton. She has been performing among several tribute acts in “Legends In Concert” in both Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas paying tribute to Dolly Parton.

Her solo show has taken her throughout the world with performances in Sweden, Finland, Australia and aboard the Country Music Cruise. Hester also has performed on the live AXS television show, “World’s Greatest Tribute Bands.”

“I have been singing my entire life,” she said Monday in an interview with Local 4. “My first solo performance was at church when I was three years old,” she said Monday, noting she’s Southern Baptist. “So music and singing have truly been a part of who I am.”

“It wasn’t just singing. I like the acting, everything to do with entertainment, the creativity of it. Like for Halloween, I didn’t want to buy the Halloween costumes. When I was a kid, I would create my costumes,” Hester said.  

She also grew up loving Dolly Parton and before launching the tribute act (which meticulously matches her physical appearance), she performed in a lot of theater and other musical acts – including in a country band in the ‘90s. Hester said she never really liked the bar scene.

“I love going and entertaining and I made a lot of friends, but I was more pulled towards more of the theatrical side of things,” she said. “Once I started getting. more jobs based in a theater type atmosphere, that’s when things just blossomed and took off.

“I wanted a music career but I never really decided what that would look like,” Hester said. “I was always open to all ideas, because for me it’s about performing. I just love to perform.”

Though it seems there are countless Elvis tribute acts, there were just a few Dolly acts when she started out. “Over the years, that there’s more and more coming out,” Hester said. “Absolutely. And more recently in the last few years.”

What’s to love about Dolly?

“I don’t think there’s anything that you don’t love about Dolly,” she said. “Even people who don’t necessarily love country music, they still love Dolly. She’s just an amazing person.

“I think what draws me to her is that she is very, very true to herself. She definitely wears her heart on her sleeve and she is so intelligent and smart. It’s amazing, her creativity and talent, everything she touches turns to gold.

“The thing I think the thing that I love most about her besides all that is she is just so highly loved because of the fact that despite, as she says, despite of her exterior, you know, she’s just truly a beautiful person inside and out. I’m very blessed that she is the one that I’m able to pay tribute to,” Hester said. “The more I learn about her, the more I admire her and respect her.”

Parton has been widely lauded for her Imagination Library project (which gives over 2.4 million free, high-quality, age-appropriate books each month to children around the world), but Hester said there’s more she does that isn’t known.

“There’s so many things she does that are charitable that never are publicized. And it’s because she doesn’t do it for publicity,” she said. “She truly does it from her heart. And she says, ‘Well, God blessed me, so I need to bless others.’”

Hester literally performs as Dolly on stage, tells stories about Dolly, and doesn’t talk about herself.

“Tonight Show” highlight

A career highlight was in fall 2021, when she performed and won E’s “Clash of the Cover Bands,” and then got to be on “The Tonight Show” in January 2022.

In 2021, there were 20 cover bands competing for the title, and Hester said she was shocked to emerge overall winner for the year. “That was definitely just an unreal, amazing experience. It was incredible.

“I was extremely honored and humbled because the acts that were on that show were extremely talented, incredible acts,” Hester said.

A “Today Show” piece on her said: “The singer certainly sounds just like Parton and nails her signature twang and has her bubbly energy down pat, too. And the show’s judges were definitely blown away by how much she resembled the country icon and couldn’t help but dance along during the song.

“It sounds just like her!” Adam Lambert said as he watched her perform.

“She’s amazing!” Meghan Trainor agreed. (You can watch it below.)

For winning, Hester’s prize package included $10,000 for winning her round and an additional $25,000 for taking it all. Jimmy Fallon is an executive producer of the series.

Getting to be on “The Tonight Show” (which Fallon hosts) also was unreal for Hester.

“I’m like, OK, I don’t think I could dream any bigger than this,” she recalled, noting she did a medley of “9 to 5,” “Jolene” and “Two Doors Down.” “It was wonderful. He is a wonderful person.”

Hester met Parton once, very briefly, at Dollywood in Tennessee, in 2013.

“I was in Gatlinburg at a convention performing as her and she was in Pigeon Forge doing the opening parade, this huge opening parade for Dollywood that she does every year,” she said. “In Dollywood I met her for those five seconds.

“And I didn’t tell her what I did for a living or anything,” Hester said. “How you say, hey, I dress and act like you. And it was pretty much, I looked at her and said, nice to meet you, great show. And it felt really unreal standing there, you know, within a few feet of her.”

She’s lived in Las Vegas for a year and a half, but is moving to the East Coast to be closer to family.

Concerts around the world

Hester is planning to do a show in the tiny European country of Lichtenstein, in September, her first overseas appearance since COVID.

“People in other countries absolutely adore her,” she said of Dolly. “There’s a whole different vibe with Dolly in other countries and it’s amazing. I mean, as much as we love her, they love her just as much as we do.

“It’s crazy. I went to Australia; phenomenal experience, same thing. I’ve been to Sweden and I’ve been to Finland. Same thing,” Hester said. “It’s funny over there because I don’t speak their language. But they sing every song with me. So it’s definitely, the phenomenon is worldwide.”

When she becomes Parton on stage, Hester wishes she could take part of her home with her.

“I wish that I had Dolly’s confidence,” she said. “She is just so, so confident in everything that she does. She never second-guesses anything that she does. I mean, if she does, we’re not aware of it. She’s just so intelligent, and her business savvy is just unreal.

“So she knows what she needs to do to be successful at anything that she does. And I would love to have some of some of that type of knowledge for sure,” Hester said. “I wanna make sure and it’s important to me that I present her and honor her in a way that would make her proud because I just have the utmost respect for her.

“So I want to always do it as best that I can, and as true to her as I can, to honor and respect the person that she is.”

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